This award funds the First US-China Workshops on Neutron Scattering Science and Technology to promote the confluence of expertise and ideas from universities and government laboratories of both countries to accelerate basic research and development in Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). The U.S. organizers are Sow-Hsin Chen (PI) Professor of Applied Radiation Physics in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at MIT and Chun-Keung Loong (Co-PI), Senior Physicist, Intense Pulsed Neutron Source Division, Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). The Chinese organizer is Zhixiang Zhao, President of the China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE). The first workshop will be held November 2006 in Beijing, China, and is intended to bring together 60 (25 from U.S.) scientific leaders, neutron scientists and engineers from universities and neutron centers together with their Chinese counterparts. The second workshop will be held in the U.S. in fall 2007 and will involve a broader base of U.S. participants, specifically 5 early-career scientists and engineers and 25 graduate students from the U.S.
Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) is an important interdisciplinary method for illuminating neutrons to characterize the properties of materials. Neutrons from a beam "scatter" from a target material in a way that reveals its structure and properties. SNS is of interest to multiple research communities in both countries. SNS impacts physics, materials science, chemistry, biology and engineering, but also has broader implications for research areas such as nuclear medicine. The workshops will have broader societal impact, due to the anticipated expanding role of neutron scattering in solving critical, global problems in energy, environment, and health via materials characterization and utilization. The workshops will allow the U.S. neutron community to understand China s thrust in R&D for basic science and nuclear technology; the emphasis on Cyber infrastructure will encourage collaborative exchange in scientific and technological research. The proposed workshops are likely to increase the talent pool and better prepare the next generation of scientists to the benefit of both countries.
